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To Boldly Go Where Pot Products Have Not Gone Before

Tarukino’s office building in the no-man’s-land between Fremont and Ballard doesn’t look like the home of a future international cannabis conglomerate. Open the company’s front door, and you’re greeted by a dated interior and a dark staircase. But the luxury SUVs parked in front of the building, and the résumés of the people sitting in the offices upstairs, give credence to the globe-conquering plans the company is hatching.

Tarukino owns three brands in Washington’s legal weed market: Happy Apple weed sodas, Pearl2O vitamin water, and Velvet Swing cannabis lubricant. They are cannabis products with little resemblance to the pot of the Grateful Dead or Biggie Smalls. You don’t smoke them to get high, they’ve been stripped of weed flavors and odors, and their sleek bottles and packaging make them look like they could be sold on the shelves of Target or a health food store.